Submerged
by addictedtolove92
Summary: A bump, or in this case, a very big obstacle in the road for Nick, Olivia, and their loved ones.
1. Chapter 1

_Author's Note: In light of recent developments in the SVU-verse, I have decided to acknowledge the fact that Nick has a son. I wonder how it would affect Nick and Olivia's marriage in __**my **__SVU-verse. Obviously the timeline will change significantly, but I'll work all that out in the story. Read, review, follow, favorite, and most importantly, enjoy!_

**Summary: A bump, or in the case, a very big obstacle in the road for Nick, Olivia, and their loved ones. **

**Submerged**

**Chapter 1**

"Will you put that down!" Olivia chastises her husband with a playful smirk on her face.

They've been walking around the grocery store for what seems like forever trying to agree on what food items to buy. She could've easily done this without his assistance, but being the ever helpful husband that he proudly claims to be, he insisted to accompany her on the carefully planned trip. Honestly, though, she knows why he's really here, he can't put anything past her. Lately she's been bringing home more . . . nutritious foodstuffs and slowly, but surely, weaning her family off the sugary, fatty, calorie loaded substances Nick usually adds to their grocery list. They eat pretty healthy, but they could be doing a lot better in that department. Sometimes her hectic schedule doesn't permit her to put in the time necessary to prepare meals with completely nourishing components. And God knows, if she doesn't try no one else—meaning her husband—will.

"I've done enough compromising, Liv, I can't go another week without a Twinkie."

Olivia rolls her eyes and grabs the box from him. "Fine, you can get this box of Twinkies, but you have to put something back. Something of **equal **calorie value."

Nick gives her a fleeting look, then eyes their cart full of groceries visually deciding what to get rid of. It's between Ben and Jerry's Boston Crème Pie and his precious Nacho Cheese Doritos. Olivia walks down the juice aisle as he continues on with his internal conflict. By the time she gets back with a thing of apple juice, he's finally decided against Ben and Jerry's.

". . . Hmm."

"What?" he asks staring dejectedly at the cold, delicious looking container in his hand.

She shrugs pushing the cart to the next aisle. "Nothing, I was just _hoping _you'd decide to sacrifice your precious Doritos."

Confused, he lifts his head and looks at her. "Why?"

"Well . . . remember the last time you had ice cream? How much _fun _we had when the kids went to sleep that night . . . , "she trails off.

Slowly, a large, knowing grin starts to develop on Nick's face. "On second thought . . ."

The two of them share a meaningful laugh as Nick goes to put the bag of chips back. A smile still on her lips, Liv turns the corner colliding with another basket.

"Oh, my God, I'm so sorry," the woman says, her hand over her heart. "I was just trying to catch up with my son."

Olivia gives her an understanding smile. "It's okay; I know how that is."

The lady moves back and out of Olivia's way.

"Here's that disgusting cheese you've been longing for, babe," Nick says handing her the offending object.

She smiles, delighted. "Thanks. Excuse—"

". . . Carlos?"

Nick's eyes connect with the woman's. His breath catches and her eyes fill with tears and disbelief.

"Carlos? I think—" Olivia begins but cuts herself off at Nick's change in attitude and body language. ". . . Nick?"

"I . . . Cynthia . . ."

"I have to go," Cynthia mumbles.

She leaves her cart in the middle of the aisle and Nick staring at her fast, retreating form.

" . . . What just happened here?" Olivia finally asks.

". . . I . . . Nothing. Let's just finish and go home."

"That was definitely not _nothing, _Nick. Your entire mood just changed because you saw a woman. What's going on?"

"Noth—"

"And before you say nothing again, let me remind you that I'm your wife and I have every right to know what the hell just happened here."

"Just let it go, okay?"

"No—"

"Let it go!" he whispers harshly. He exhales, irritated. "I'll wait in the car."

Olivia stands there, confused and growing more and more upset as she watches Nick walk out of the store.

* * *

Half an hour later, Olivia climbs into the passenger side of their car. Nick revs up the engine, staring straight ahead, and pulls off. It's a long and quiet ride and eventually, the silence finally annoys him more than anything.

"I, uh, called my mom; told her we were on our way to get the kids," he began chancing a glance at her.

"Good," is her monosyllabic response.

". . . I was thinking maybe spaghetti for dinner, the kids'll love that."

"That's fine."

Liv takes out her phone and starts looking through her emails and text messages; her way of telling him to leave her alone, she has nothing to say to him.

"Look, Liv—"

Olivia sighs, irate. "No, you look, if you think you can act like that situation back at the grocery store didn't happen, you have another thing coming. I told you once before that I was over having things hidden from me, so until you decide to tell me what the hell just happened back there, I'm completely done talking to you."

Liv sits back in her seat and returns to whatever's going on in her phone.

". . . I met her years ago. Before you, before Maria, when I was undercover. . . We had a relationship. At first my focus was on getting her brother locked up but then I fell in love with her. After the bust I had to disappear for a while. Once I could I looked for her, but she was gone and I moved on."

". . . Why couldn't you tell me that to begin with?"

He shrugs. "Because . . . I don't know, Olivia. It's just . . . It was weird seeing her after all these years and I was shocked."

Nick parks the car in front of his mother's apartment complex and kills the engine.

"I'm sorry that I was short with you, Liv, but I really don't want to talk about this anymore," he says with finality.

He exits the car and makes his way to his mom's apartment, Liv following suit.

Across the street, Cynthia and her son sit at the small ice cream shop enjoying their end of the week treat. She stares at the couple as they help their kids into the car. She feels an awful feeling in the pit of her stomach that constricts with every passing second. He has a smile on his face, the same smile her son wears, and has been wearing, since the day he was born. The other children, climbing into their SUV, have similar ones.

"Mom?"

". . ."

"Mom!"

"Hmm?" she asks looking at her 13 year old boy.

"What are you looking at? Are you alright?"

She nods, giving him a small smile. It's not very convincing. "Yea, Gil, I'm fine. Finish your ice cream and let's get out of here."

He nods and continues eating his treat.

**Tbc**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing—but Stella and Sammy, of course.**


	2. Chapter 2

_Author's Note: Sorry for the long delay, but as cliché as it sounds, you know; life kinda got in the way. And when I say life I mean school because school takes up one's entire life, therefore, school is life. But, lol, please enjoy! Tell me what you think, leave me love, reviews, favorites, follows, PM me if you have any suggestions or questions or whatever! I love to communicate!_

**Submerged**

**Chapter 2**

Zara walks out of the large school with her bright pink backpack strapped to her back, her hands clutching its orange straps. She stops on the first step of the entrance of the school and leans on the railing. Folding her arms across her chest, she's mentally—and physically—preparing herself for the strong wave of attitude she intends to send her mother's way for forcing her to attend this stupid school. She feels out of place and lonely and hates the fact that she won't be able to see her old friends on a daily basis anymore. She hates her teachers last year for _'strongly suggesting' _she attend school for the gifted.

"Excuse you!" Zara exclaims as a dark blue blur's shoulder rams into her.

The older boy looks behind him with an apologetic look on his face. "Sorry," he says, then doubles back. "Hey . . . you're that 6th grader in my computer lab class—Zara right?"

". . . Yea," she replies refolding her arms.

The boy walks back over to her, clearly not deterred by the unapproachable vibe she's giving off. "You're really good with computers."

Zara gives him a strange look.

"You helped my friend today, Sean, with his Excel spreadsheet."

"Oh, yea," Zara replies casually. She shrugs. "It's easy stuff."

He chuckles. "Not to Sean. He's really good in English and History and stuff, but when it comes to computers, he's really illiterate . . . Which is strange, considering his dad's a computer programmer."

She looks up at the tidbit of information, trying her best to adhere to the standoffish attitude she's spent the entire first week of school creating for herself. ". . . A computer programmer?"

"Yea, crazy huh?"

"Yea."

"Oh, I'm Gil by the way."

"Nice to meet you, Gil."

". . . I didn't want to come here either, but my mom—she's real serious about education and stuff."

"Mine too, but I'd rather be with my friends."

"I did too, but once you get used to it and start making friends I think you'll really like it here."

"I don't think so."

"You'll see," he says.

Zara opens her mouth to say something else, but her mother's voice announcing her arrival puts her walls right back up.

"Hey sweetie," Olivia says smoothing her hand down the back of her daughter's head.

Zara jerks away, her arms back in their position over her chest. Olivia pulls her hand away.

"Who's your friend?" Olivia asks looking at the older boy.

He smiles at her. "Hi, I'm Gil."

Liv smiles back and shakes his hand. "Hi Gil, I'm Zara's mom."

"Can we go now?" Zara asks, irritated.

Olivia looks at her daughter, then back to Gil. Their eyes lock for a brief second and, oddly enough, she feels like she's met him before. She shrugs it off, though, and motions for her daughter to get a move on.

"Let's go. Nice meeting you Gil."

They walk off as Gil's mother approaches him.

". . . You ready?" she asks, staring at Liv and Zara's backs.

"Yea."

As Cynthia and her son walk away, Olivia, brow creased, looks behind her.

* * *

The clink and clatter of dishes fill the space as Olivia cleans up the disaster area that used to be her pristine kitchen—as she does. Somehow dinnertime in the Benson-Amaro household, every single night, ends up becoming a mess. And with her husband's help—every night—she cleans dishes, glasses, wipes down tables, counters, the stove, and for some reason the handle on the refrigerator door. Thinking about it, the culprit leaving food and juice smears all over the appliance is none other than Sammy who will wipe his hands on any and everything EXCEPT the napkin she never fails to leave on the side of his plate.

"Whose juice is this?" Nick asks holding up a clear plastic cup of orange juice with a piece of soggy garlic bread floating inside.

"Probably Stella's; she hates garlic bread almost as much as she hates orange juice."

Nick shakes his head dumping its contents into the empty side of the sink. "She hardly ate anything."

"She ate as much as she could," Liv says continuing her dishwashing task. "I watched her."

Olivia hands him a clean, Princess embroidered plastic plate that belongs to Stella. He dries it as an unsettling silence envelopes them. Once he's done he puts it off to the side, in his mind, going through the day trying to decipher the reason for her nonchalant mood.

". . . How was work?"

Liv shrugs handing him yet another dish. "It was a normal workday. You know, paper work, supervising, the usual," she replies. "What about you? Did your meeting with IAB go okay?"

". . . It went."

Finally, she looks at him, a quiet concern in her features. "Anything I can help with?"

He shakes his head. "It's probably best if you _don't _involve yourself in my work affairs anymore. You know what happened last time."

Liv rolls her eyes. "Do you think I'd stand by and let IAB harass you for something that wasn't even your fault?"

He really doesn't want to dwell on that.

"How's the rookie holdin up? You gettin to him yet?"

Olivia gives him a small smile. "I think it's more like he's getting to me. If I have to bail him out one more time I'm gonna wring his neck."

"Talk about bad Karma."

She gives him a full fledge smile this time, bumping her shoulder with his. "You didn't even know me back then."

There's a twinkle in her eye that he hasn't seen for far too long. He's missed it. She's been so preoccupied with whatever's happening at work and whatever's going on in that conundrum she calls a brain that the twinkle he loves so much has been nonexistent. Nick's hand tangles in her hair before he knows what he's doing and he wordlessly pulls her head to his. Their lips meet in a soft, chaste kiss and he remembers that they haven't done so in over three days.

". . . What's really going on Olivia?"

They're facing eachother now, and Nick's hand is still tangled in her hair. She shakes her head.

"It's nothing, Nick."

"Liv—"

"I just have a lot going on with work, but I can handle it," she replies.

Part of that is true. After a year and a half, she's still getting used to her new job, getting used to supervising a crew of detectives that remind her so much of her old self. The adjustment hasn't been as stress-free as she previously expected, but she enjoys the job and the challenge it provides. It's a lot different from SVU, still slightly time consuming, but it allows her to play a more active role in the lives of her children and husband and ultimately, that is what she wanted.

"Are you sure?"

She nods. "I'm fine, Nick. Everything is fine."

Again, she gives him a reassuring smile and another kiss.

* * *

As she lies in bed later that night, Nick's arm draped over her waist, a million thoughts flit and flutter in her mind. She wants nothing more than to talk to her husband about it because they talk about everything. Their communication skills have improved to the point of perfection and the fact that she feels like she's lying to him—about something she's not even sure of—kills her.

Olivia carefully shimmies herself from underneath Nick and grabs her phone from her bedside table. She silently walks out of the room, closing the door behind her. As she walks down the hall toward the stairs, the screen of her phone illuminates the surrounding space. Her thumb slides across the touchscreen phone, sifting through her recent calls until she finally reaches Alex Cabot's contact. She stops there and thinks about it for a second as she reaches the last step leading to the foyer. Finally, she presses the phone to her ear waiting to hear her friend's voice.

". . . Liv? Is everything okay?" Alex's worried voice fills her ear.

"Yea, everything's fine, Alex," she replies. "I'm really sorry to call so late, but I really need to talk."

Alex switches on her bedside lamp and sits up. "What's going on?"

Liv sinks into the cushions of the living room sofa. ". . . Remember when I told you about the little situation at the grocery store last week? With—"

"You and Nick and the woman he had an affair with—before he met you."

"Yea."

". . . You don't think he's chea—"

"No! Nick would never—He'd never cheat on me."

"Then what, Liv? Why is that silly encounter still bothering you?"

Olivia sighs. "You didn't see the look on that woman's face, Alex. She was so shocked . . . she was beside herself when she saw Nick."

"Liv—"

"I'm not being paranoid."

"If you don't think he's having an affair—"

"She has a son. He's a little bit older than Zara," Olivia puts in.

"How do you know? Have you been following her?"

"No. He goes to Zara's school."

"What does her son have to do with this?"

"He and Zara were talking today when I picked her up from school . . . Alex . . . I looked at him and . . . all I could see was—"

"Olivia—"

"He and Zara favor so much . . . Nick's eyes."

"That little boy is not your husband's son."

"It adds up . . . And I'm pretty sure . . . I'm certain that that _little boy _is Nick's son."

**Tbc**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing and all mistakes are my own.**

_So, this of course is a work in progress. I'm going to try very hard to regularly update as long as you stick with me (I really hope you guys do!). Your support is greatly appreciated and I thank all who have read, reviewed, followed, and favorited and if you haven't done any of the following, by all means, please do! _

_-addicted_


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